A different kind of matchmaker. Many of the most dynamic public companies, from Alibaba to Facebook to Visa, and the most valuable start-ups, such as Airbnb and Uber, are matchmakers that connect one group of customers with another group of customers. Economists call matchmakers multisided platforms because they provide physical or virtual platforms for multiple groups to get together. Dating sites connect people with potential matches, for example, and ride-sharing apps do the same for drivers and riders. Although matchmakers have been around for millennia, they’re becoming more and more popular—and profitable—due to dramatic advances in technology, and a lot of companies that have managed to crack the code of this business model have become today’s power brokers. Don’t let the flashy successes fool you, though. Starting a matchmaker is one of the toughest business challenges, and almost everyone who tries to build one, fails. In Matchmakers, David Evans and Richard Schmalensee, two economists who were among the first to analyze multisided platforms and discover their principles, and who’ve consulted for some of the most successful platform businesses in the world, explain how matchmakers work best in practice, why they do what they do, and how entrepreneurs can improve their chances for success. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, an investor, a consumer, or an executive, your future will involve more and more multisided platforms, and Matchmakers—rich with stories from platform winners and losers—is the one book you’ll need in order to navigate this appealing but confusing world.
Named a Best Book of Fall 2022 by Parade • BuzzFeed • New York Post • GMA.com • People "Loigman's latest is a gem. A scrappy Jewish teenager newly arrived in 1920s New York struggles to follow her calling as a matchmaker––seventy years later, her cynical divorce-attorney granddaughter realizes she has very inconveniently inherited the family gift for matching soulmates. Both funny and moving, The Matchmaker's Gift made me smile from start to finish." ––Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Rose Code Is finding true love a calling or a curse? Even as a child in 1910, Sara Glikman knows her gift: she is a maker of matches and a seeker of soulmates. But among the pushcart-crowded streets of New York’s Lower East Side, Sara’s vocation is dominated by devout older men—men who see a talented female matchmaker as a dangerous threat to their traditions and livelihood. After making matches in secret for more than a decade, Sara must fight to take her rightful place among her peers, and to demand the recognition she deserves. Two generations later, Sara’s granddaughter, Abby, is a successful Manhattan divorce attorney, representing the city’s wealthiest clients. When her beloved Grandma Sara dies, Abby inherits her collection of handwritten journals recording the details of Sara’s matches. But among the faded volumes, Abby finds more questions than answers. Why did Abby’s grandmother leave this library to her and what did she hope Abby would discover within its pages? Why does the work Abby once found so compelling suddenly feel inconsequential and flawed? Is Abby willing to sacrifice the career she’s worked so hard for in order to keep her grandmother’s mysterious promise to a stranger? And is there really such a thing as love at first sight?
In this moving story about losing and finding love again, a woman sets out to find the perfect matches for those closest to her. Forty-eight-year-old Nantucketer Dabney Kimball Beech has always had a gift for matchmaking. Some call her ability mystical, while others, her husband, celebrated economist John Boxmiller Beech, and her daughter, Agnes, who is clearly engaged to the wrong man, call it meddlesome. But there's no arguing with her results: With 42 happy couples to her credit and all of them still together, Dabney has never been wrong about romance. Never, that is, except in the case of herself and Clendenin Hughes, the green-eyed boy who took her heart with him long ago when he left the island to pursue his dream of becoming a journalist. Now, after spending twenty-seven years on the other side of the world, Clen is back on Nantucket, and Dabney has never felt so confused, or so alive. But when tragedy threatens her own second chance, Dabney must face the choices she's made and share painful secrets with her family. Determined to make use of her gift before it's too late, she sets out to find perfect matches for those she loves most.
A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice In the vein of Graham Greene and John le Carré, The Matchmaker delivers a chilling Cold War spy story set in West Berlin, where an American woman targeted by the Stasi must confront the truth behind her German husband's mysterious disappearance. Berlin, 1989. Protests across East Germany threaten the Iron Curtain and Communism is the ill man of Europe. Anne Simpson, an American who works as a translator at the Joint Operations Refugee Committee, thinks she is in a normal marriage with a charming East German. But then her husband disappears and the CIA and Western German intelligence arrive at her door. Nothing about her marriage is as it seems. She had been targeted by the Matchmaker—a high level East German counterintelligence officer—who runs a network of Stasi agents. These agents are his "Romeos" who marry vulnerable women in West Berlin to provide them with cover as they report back to the Matchmaker. Anne has been married to a spy, and now he has disappeared, and is presumably dead. The CIA are desperate to find the Matchmaker because of his close ties to the KGB. They believe he can establish the truth about a high-ranking Soviet defector. They need Anne because she's the only person who has seen his face - from a photograph that her husband mistakenly left out in his office - and she is the CIA’s best chance to identify him before the Matchmaker escapes to Moscow. Time is running out as the Berlin Wall falls and chaos engulfs East Germany. But what if Anne's husband is not dead? And what if Anne has her own motives for finding the Matchmaker to deliver a different type of justice?
A young painter, Lily has reached a crossroads in her life. Her career hasn't taken off, her best friend may no longer be the trusted friend she thought, her boyfriend is a disappointment, and now she can't keep up with the rising cost of living in the city. With no one to turn to, Lily is forced to move from her beloved apartment, but while packing she comes across a piece of mail that had slipped to the back of her junk drawer: a letter detailing further action needed to finalize the annulment of a quickie Vegas wedding. Ten years ago! Lily decides it's time to turn over a new leaf and the first item on her list of things to fix is getting the annulment... but you can't just send a reply ten years later, "Hey by the way we are still married." This is something that must be addressed in person. Lily takes to the road to track down her husband - the charming, fun, and sexy man she connected with all those years ago - Ben Hutchinson. Ben Hutchinson left a wealthy dot-com lifestyle behind to return home to his family and the small town he loves, Minnow Bay. He's been living off the grid and the last thing he expects is a wife he didn't know he had to show up on his doorstep. By chance, Lily arrives at the magical Minnow Bay Inn, and there she will discover not just a place to lay her head, but new friends, a thriving art community, and maybe even the love of her life.
Bleeding Hearts Exclusive Dating Service has ten locations throughout the country and is known as an elite matchmaking service that removes the uncertainty of looking for that ideal date. They provide private, exclusive introductions and matchmaking for those accustomed to excellence or others looking for certain uniqueness. The owner of the company, Alice Simmons, built the successful company with the help of her boyfriend/partner. Since his departure, she has neglected to keep her hand on the helm, letting the responsibility slip into the unsuspecting prey of her lying, heartless Miami director, Joan Foster, who will stop at nothing to make money. Olivia Felner, once an extremely rich woman, has a mysterious past. Coming off a drug-induced state, she finds herself destitute and alone. She is forced to take a job as a telemarketer, where she can comfortably hide out. She is monitored 24-7 by the law. After realizing what the company does, she sees an opportunity and soon becomes privy to what goes on. Joan has developed new scripts to entice members for big money. Employees are strongly advised by the director to answer questions with questions, suggest possibilities that do not exist, and use smoke and mirror tactics to sell memberships in return for introductions that will fulfil the romantic, sexual, and fantasy needs of their clients. Joan places Olivia in charge of the failing West Palm Beach location with her staff of four--Rachael, Savannah, Lorenzo, and Mia. After realizing that they have a limited number of members and matches, Olivia cunningly sees a window to increase sales. She and the membership team integrate their individual skills and work as a team to save their jobs and earn high commissions. They go to all lengths to validate company promises by sometimes replacing the lack of members and filling the roles themselves. They share stories at their weekly meetings of the sometimes hilarious, lewd, erotic, and heart-wrenching situations of bleeding hearts looking for love. One aspect of this book is the rawness of its subject matter and the people who live in the world of fantasy. In this twenty-first century, everyone is looking for love in all the wrong places. Everyone deserves to be loved . . . but at what price? The financial reward is the motivating factor for the West Palm team to grow the membership base by sometimes stretching the company rules and policies to keep within legal parameters. After months of fraud allegations, Olivia suspects there is an undercover agent amongst them who is looking to expose the company. One location is ordered to close down. Lawsuits increase across the country as the following headlines, Thousands Lost to Closed Dating Service, become progressively proactive. Olivia, for personal reasons, sets out on a seemingly innocent encounter that quickly backfires on her. She is threatened with blackmail but denies everything. Turmoil occurs in the Miami office and personal feelings override reasoning as the undercover agent is exposed. A terrible tragedy occurs in the Miami office, freeing Olivia of any wrongdoing. The company is investigated and all locations close down. The headlines The Matchmakers Have Met Their Match pour out across the country. The company undergoes months of investigation. The West Palm Beach team helps in the investigation to bring about justice. The girls' notoriety affords them certain advantages with surprising results for their futures. The story concludes with numerous sequel story lines.
There's No Escape From the Mule Hollow MatchmakersAnd this time, their next "victim" was Sheri Marsh. Sheri had long endured the town biddies' attempts at matchmaking, even though she had no intention of ever settling down. As the pool of single women dwindled, their efforts doubled, and Sheri needed a plan that would get the meddling mavens off her back for good....Unless You Get Hitched!Enter taciturn cowboy Pace Gentry. Playing her beau wasn't what this new Christian had expected. But the always aggravating, yet utterly adorable Sheri proved one thing to him––the Lord sure did work in mysterious ways!
Lara Zany is known throughout the school yard as the Friendship Matchmaker-kids who need to make or keep a best friend call on her expertise and follow her hard-and-fast rules to find friendships. Lara's documented everything from friendship categories (the BOBF, or Bus Only Best Friend; the NL, or Nerdy Loner; the LBC, or Loner By Choice) to strategies (MAKF, or Make and Keep Friends; BTFP, or Bus Trip Faux Pas). And she's sure that her manual will one day be published by none other than Harry Potter's publishers. But when new kid in school Emily Wong questions whether following such unbendable rules is really the way to true friendship, Lara and Emily decide to compete by each finding a LL a best friend. But Lara, a LBC, doesn't bank on finding her own best friendship in the most unlikely of places... In the tradition of Clueless or Emma, this is a funny and heartwarming story of celebrating individuality and finding acceptance.
A romance develops as a detective partners with a lonely-hearts columnist to solve a murder mystery. London, 1885 Amelie Hampton is a hopeless romantic, which makes her the perfect columnist to answer lonely heart letters in The Marriage Gazette. When Amelie plays matchmaker with two anonymous lonely hearts, she also decides to secretly observe the couple's blind date. To her surprise, the man who appears for the rendezvous is Harold Radcliffe--a grieving widower and a member of Amelie's book club. Police detective Michael Baker has been struggling ever since his best friend and brother-in-law died in the line of fire. Because he knows the dangers of his job, he has vowed never to marry and subject a wife and family to the uncertainty of his profession. But when he meets Miss Hampton, he is captured by her innocence, beauty, and her quick mind. When a woman's body is pulled from the river, Michael suspects the woman's husband--Harold Radcliffe--of foul play. Amelie refuses to believe that Harold is capable of such violence but agrees to help, imagining it will be like one of her favorite mystery novels. Her social connections and clever observations prove an asset to the case, and Amelie is determined to prove Mr. Radcliffe's innocence. But the more time Amelie and Michael spend together, the more they trust each other, and the more they realize they are a good team, maybe the perfect match. They also realize that Mr. Radcliffe is hiding more than one secret, and when his attention turns toward Amelie, Michael knows he must put an end to this case before the woman he loves comes to harm.
